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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Book Fair Week 2009 (part 1)

As I mentioned last year, this week—the last week of October—is “Book Fair Week”: every year, the McGill Book Fair is held on the Wednesday and Thursday (i.e. yesterday and today), and the Quebec City Women’s Club Book Fair is held on the Saturday in Quebec City (which is where my dad lives, so it’s always a great excuse to go for a visit—plus he loves Book Fair nearly as much as I do!).

As you might imagine, I like to get to these events early, so yesterday Linda and I (along with a non-blogging friend of mine) lined up outside the doors at McGill for about 25 minutes before we were let in at 9 am. I managed to snag eight books, then Linda had to go to class. (I recommended two books to her, which she bought, so I hope she enjoys them: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life by Natalie Goldberg.) Almost as soon as Linda had left, Tina called me: she was ready to check out the book fair on her lunch break. I of course had to join her... and I bought another six books!

All these books only cost me $40 and many are in near-perfect condition (although I bent the cover of one book on the way home, which really annoyed me). Here’s all my loot:

The only one I’ve already read is Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, which I remember loving.

I’m especially excited aboutThe Heart Specialist by Claire Holden Rothman, which both Cindy and Linda recommended to me, and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which I’ve read good things about on many blogs. I’m also happy I found a copy of Specials by Scott Westerfeld, as he’s going to be in town next week, but I still need the first two books in that series!

What a great stash of books! I already own Deafening which I have yet to read. I have read The Heart Specialist, which we are discussing at the Book Club I lead tomorrow evening. Can't wait. Would have loved to be at the McGill Book sale.

I found out on The Montreal Gazette's website that there's a library book fair somewhere in Pointe-Claire, I think . . . and it will be held in the month of November. I'll pull up the info again at a later date.

At first, I thought I was addicted to book blogging, but after having dissapeared for 2 1/2 weeks, I guess I can't say that anymore.

Then, book signings seemed like something I'd include on my list of hobbies, but this? Book fairs? Boy am I going to need to follow a 12-step program. Wait till I get to the point where I go broke because of book fairs. My honey will never forgive me. =P

You got some great books! Deafening was fabulous. I would have been completely and terribly unrestrained at that book sale. As it is, I am bad enough at kid book sales through school. I'd be shameless (and broke) if I found one for adults around here. LOL!

There was a book sale at a church in Pointe Claire on October 16 and 17th, I'm not sure what would be coming in November.

The master list of Montreal area used book sales is at www.pubnix.net/~mblack/books.html

Most of the fall cluster is over by now, but there's one ending today, and three coming up (the Westmount Library sale is on November 7-8), and there is usually one at Westmount High School in mid-November even though I've yet to see information.

There are some minor ones that may not be on the list, a lot of the fall fairs incidentally list books but I don't bother, assuming the books will be minimal.

Then there's the winter pause before the spring cluster of used book sales, which is probably a smaller number. One of the West Island libraries, I think DDO, usually has a sale in January.